April 08, 2009

Consumed by Trompe L'Oeil Moschino Pieces

This week, a long-forgotten obsession of mine was resurrected. I've already mentioned time and again how the clothing genre of coats generally consumes me. My love for cold season clothing and the firm belief that outerwear is often an overlooked component of dressing combine to fuel further my position. Add this to the fact that the weather dipped into undeniably winter-coat-appropriate territory, and it seems fitting, despite the calendar date, to devote an early spring entry to coats. But I'm not interested in just any old coat.

I distinctly remember gripping Chris's arm while screening Kill Bill Volume 1 in the theater, back in 2003. It wasn't from the gore or the violence. It wasn't during any especially climatic moment in the non-linear plot. Instead my visceral reaction came when Daryl Hanna's character, Elle Driver, appeared on the screen, walking down the hospital hallway, dressed in the most incredible trench coat I had ever seen.

I didn't know who made it. I didn't know if it was a designer piece. I just knew that I had been studying Lacanian psychoanalytic theories about the gaze and trompe l'oeil, and that coat symbolized the possibility for two of my seemingly disparate interests, critical theory and fashion, to merge.

Eventually I learned that Elle Driver was wearing head to toe Moschino, from the collection depicted in the above, early-2000s ad campaign. But I never put forth much effort toward tracking down a piece to call my own, and my memory of it quickly faded... Until now.

Thanks to an outfit post by the always adorable and stylish, Lindsay of Janey Powell, I was reminded of my desire to locate one of the incredible trompe l'oeil pieces from that particular Moschino collection. Lindsay is fortunate enough to actually own one!

I had no idea there was a DRESS!!!!! Isn't it incredible?! Obsession: Resurrected, and Expanded. It now includes the coat, the dress, the gloves, and everything else that happens to utilize this "trick of the eye." Lindsay alerted me to the existence of a bathing suit, and while I couldn't pull it off, I am VERY interested in knowing more about the dress with the tricky bow detail, to the right.

Does anyone know anything more about this collection or these pieces? I can't seem to locate the year in which they existed. While Kill Bill was released in 2003, the 2003 and 2002 spring runway collections for Moschino on style.com don't feature these looks. Regardless, I have something new to track down and I have a feeling that I will need to muster all my shopping karma to make it happen.

Cacharel did a really similar dress, long sleeve, with a bow and drawn on pleats in a similar cream color. It was probably around 2001. I hunted high & low for it for years - no luck! I still feel sad about it... I hope you find something from this Moschino collection.

Moschino Couture! did a line of tromp l'oeil hand painted silk dresses and blouses in the 80s. Later in the early 2000s Moschino Cheap and Chic revisited the idea with new designs (as seen in Kill Bill). There's an original Moschino Couture! tromp l'oeil silk blouse for sale on etsy right now at the link: https://www.etsy.com/listing/193938405/ivory-silk-moschino-couture-blouse?ref=shop_home_active_2 Swoon!